ABSTRACT
Future detailed studies of the integration of commitments and vows will derive much information from mNga’-ris Ascertainment of the Three Vows (sDom-gsum rnam-nges), the most important practical manual for the living monastic tradition of the rNying-ma school, which maintains the ‘Lower Tibetan Vinaya Lineage’ in O-rgyan sMin-grol-gling and its branch monasteries. The present discussion provisionally indicates some aspects of the relationship between commitment and view, and between commitment and vow, within the context of the nine vehicles in general. In particular, it clarifies that the sbyor-sgrol practices of Mahāyoga are fundamentally in harmony with the and Bodhisattva vows. In view of the anxiety which has occasionally been expressed regarding the public reaction to the treatment of the rites of ‘liberation’ (sgrol-ba) in Part Five of bDud-’joms Rin-po-che’s rNying-ma'i chos-'byung, which will shortly appear in its English version, I would argue that the clarity of kLong-chenpa’s interpretation should remove such doubts and anxieties. While a very strong case can undoubtedly be made for keeping secret from ‘unworthy recipients’ the actual means for attainments (sādhana) and esoteric instructions which enable the yogin to practice such rites, the publication of general works which clarify these practices from the theoretical standpoint of the view can help remove many misconceptions. Indeed, as the biographies of the great lineage-holders of the bka'-ma tradition outlined in Part Five of this text themselves reveal, such attainments and abilities are the products of limitless years or lifetimes of intensive application, rooted continuously in compassion, and rarely seen in this world. They are the preserve of a minute number of yogins, whose attainments of the nine vehicles are beyond the perceptual range of mundane beings such as the beggarly author of this paper, who on account of his clouded thoughts has not the slightest chance of reaching even the first Bodhisattva level.
